YMCA employee arrested for allegedly having child pornography

by Tarrah Gibbons

(MGN)

KEARNEY, Neb. —

A Kearney YMCA employee has been arrested for allegedly having child pornography.

Jeremiah Warren, 38, was arrested for two counts of Distribution of Child Pornography and one count of Possession of Child Pornography after a search warrant at his Kearney home on Wednesday, according to Kearney Police.

Police said no images of children from the Kearney YMCA have been located, however the investigation is not complete.

"This is still an ongoing investigation. The search warrant conducted yesterday which led to this arrest,” KPD Lt. Mike Young said.

Young said this investigation will probably last several weeks as they search for evidence on Warren's home computer.

"The YMCA has been very cooperative in this investigation. Their number one concern is the safety of the children and they will continue to keep the children safe there. At no point so far in this investigation do I believe that any children were in danger,” Young said.

Denny Placzek, CEO of the YMCA in Kearney said Warren worked in the maintenance department for six months.

YMCA officials added he would have been nowhere near the children.

"The policies that we have in place didn't cause this to happen. The situation that happened is if a person has never been arrested or has no references that would guide us into making a decision not to hire him there’s absolutely nothing we can change on our end,” Placzek said.

The YMCA has a lot of steps that they put into place to make this happen, which is all employees must have a background and reference check before being hired.

Another rule is no child is allowed to be left with one staff member, there must be another person in the room.

"This would be a major concern for me also and I can totally understand where parents are concerned and are their kids safe at the YMCA? I honestly believe with the systems we have in place their kids are safe here at the YMCA,” Placzek said.

The CEO said no evidence was found on any YMCA computer that Warren was searching porn.

Kearney Police Department and the YMCA will continue to work together on this investigation.

Anyone with information about this case is asked to call the Kearney Police Department at 308-237-2104 or Crime Stoppers at 308-237-3424. You can also visit the Crime Stoppers Web Site at http://www.crimestoppers.buffalocounty-ne.us/.